{"id":4623,"date":"2025-05-08T20:51:58","date_gmt":"2025-05-08T20:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=4623"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:44:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:44:57","slug":"shadow-networks-foster-collaboration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/shadow-networks-foster-collaboration\/","title":{"rendered":"Shadow Networks Foster Collaboration"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher <\/a><\/p>\r\n

People often collaborate with colleagues across departments in ways that benefit their organization, sometimes sparking inter-team creativity and productivity. Human resources (HR) can either kindle or pour cold water on those fires.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Jessica Methot<\/a> of Rutgers University and the University of Exeter\u2014who cowrote an Academy of Management Review<\/a><\/em> article on this topic with Emily Rosado-Solomon of Babson College and David Allen of Texas Christian University and University of Warwick<\/a>\u2014said that managers routinely search for ways to foster collaboration and break down silos by rotating employees or creating cross-functional teams. Other effective tactics include fostering networks through company retreats or company-sponsored volunteer service among employees across departments.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cI\u2019m really interested in the interactions and communication among employees in a way that is outside the formal organizational chart,\u201d Methot said. \u201cThe functioning of the informal organization is often a shadow network behind the official organizational chart.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cWe know that there\u2019s a lot of dynamics that occur in the ways that people interact and communicate and build trust and develop friendships and gossip in organizations, and organizational leaders often try to prioritize building a climate or a culture where people are creating these types of networks, where they feel a sense of psychological safety and are comfortable sharing information and asking questions,\u201d she said. \u201cBut they don\u2019t often know exactly what HR policies are going are going to affect those networks, and how they\u2019re going to affect those networks.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIt\u2019s crucial to track and analyze how a formal HR policy impacts the informal infrastructure in an organization, how people are interacting with each other, whether they form mentoring relationships or developmental relationships with each other, and whether they form close friendships, even when they traditionally had only worked together as team members.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Methot\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n